


The "How-Does-That-Melody-Go?" Blues

by Missy



Category: Back to the Future (Movies)
Genre: Character Study, Family, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Music, Musicans, Parallel Universes, Period Typical Attitudes, Songwriting, Time Travel, mild psychological horror, time loops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-14
Updated: 2019-06-14
Packaged: 2020-05-12 01:28:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19218826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy/pseuds/Missy
Summary: Marvin Berry goes looking for "Calvin Klein" after the dance ends, but he's disappeared.





	The "How-Does-That-Melody-Go?" Blues

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Back to the Future, Marvin Berry, I swear I've heard that song before

Marvin goes looking for the kid after the dance ends – if only so he can give the guy a writing credit on Chuck’s next album. He was ready to buy the thing sight unseen, too – too bad Chuck hadn’t heard the whole song how it was really meant to be played before the kid did..whatever the kid had done to his guitar. But he’s long gone by the time Marvin finishes the gig, and none of the guys in the band or the kids at the prom seem to know where he went.

In fact, no one ever manages to see ‘Calvin Klein ’ again in the little town of Hill Valley, though people connect the disappearance to that awful lightning storm that happens the same night. It was an ugly way to die, and Marvin felt bad for him – seemed like a nice enough kid, and his help had been invaluable. Made sure they got other jobs in other towns to play other proms. Marvin moves on, to other and better gigs, but Hill Valley becomes a mystery he can never quite forget. It’s the weirdest thing Marvin’s ever experienced, after all – a high bar to cross, since he’s been on Chuck’s tour bus during the worst of his bad decisions. The stories he could tell about Buddy Holly and that Elvis fella, when they really get going…

Well, Marvin supposes there’s nothing to be done about it – if Calvin Klein isn’t around, he can’t be credited. He soon forgets the general tune and the lyrics, so by the time he makes it back to a family reunion and Chuck pulls out an old reel-to-reel track of some demos he’s been doing, he can’t quite recall the melody.

“I’ve gotta redo the lyrics,” Chuck says. “You know the radio’s not gonna play a song about a little colored boy who can play guitar like ringing a bell in 1958. But what do you think?”

“It’s really good.” And a little familiar, Marvin thought, as snatches of the Enchantment Under the Sea dance come back to him in showers of red, white and silver. 

But he doesn’t say anything to his cousin. Sometimes the universe chooses to work in mysterious ways.

***

Marvin hates it when they play gigs in Hill Valley. He swears it makes the scar on his hand itch every single time, like a bad omen or an old memory. 

It’s not that he’s afraid of running into Calvin, it’s that the whole place has this strange atmosphere. It feels like his mind is being messed with, little by little, every single time they stopped off to stay for a spell. Every time he leaves, he remembers something new and different about that Calvin kid. 

Were there two of him – one in a teeshirt and jacket, the other in a funny hat – or just one? Did that kid in the flat top chasing him around make it to the stage, or was he stopped? Did his little solo go on for minutes or hours? Did he cut his left hand or his right getting the kid out of his trunk? It’s like plunging his head right into the Mystery Hole; every time a new memory came into being. And it didn’t happen anywhere else in the country – in the world –just here in this one, weird, spot.

Chuck likes it there, though. The girls are pretty, and the money runs thick and rich like syrup on a sundae. “You ought to come play backing for me,” Chuck says. “I’ve never in my life had a problem with the place.”

Marvin shakes his head. He won’t give up his independence, his sense of adventure, for anything, no matter how weird the world is.

But he still wants to get the hell out of his weird place before it eats his brain.

*** 

He’s in his fifties the next time he comes back, and he stops in front of a crowded bookstore on an impulse, his wife and his kids back in the bus with the band, ready to testify in the background as his other cousin Donte preaches the gospel to his followers a couple of towns over. They’re going to be on closed circuit TV, and Marylou wants to make it her moment. Marvin’s excited. There’s a reason why he married that girl, after all. 

But it’s not his impatient wife who draws him to the bookstore, gets him to stand in like for what feels like hours, and brings him to stand before George McFly. 

The man’s eyes light up, and George gets up and embraces him. Then Marvin gets a vigorous shake of the hands. “I’ve never forgotten you, Mr. Berry. Your band played a big part in my getting together with my wife.”

Marvin has heard that story a few times before, but never had it been delivered with such sincerity. “Glad to have helped,” he says blandly.

“You did more than help, you saved us. You and Calvin,” he says. McFly sighs. “Without his good work, I don’t think we’d have found one another in the first place.”

Marvin lets those words wash over him. “You knew Calvin too?”

George has bowed his head toward the book now, signing It briskly, maintaining his cheer even as he continued along jovially in entertaining Marvin. “Sure did! He stayed with Lorraine while he was in town. Brought us together, in his own special way. I had the worst crush on my wife but had no idea how to approach her and ask her to the dance until he got involved.” George took the book and pressed it into Marvin’s hands. “He was unforgettable. That’s why I wrote this book about him – well, sort of.” He handed the volume to Marvin. “Here you go, on the house. I owe you so much, this little bit won’t even come close to sufficing, but consider it a start.”

“Thanks, man.” Marvin shakes his head at the over-the-top blandishments. 

He doesn’t look at the book until they’re on the road to the next gig. He opens the pages and reads.

Things begin to make sense. And part of him wishes that they wouldn’t.


End file.
